“Sleepless Nights” – FBC Morning Light (5/16/2024)

Well, good Thursday morning, I hope you're having a good day thus far, that you had a good night of rest, but has this ever happened to you?

When you're, you hit the sack, but you can't sleep, your eyelids won't close, your mind is racing, and sleep is elusive because you are in some kind of anguish.

Maybe it was a medical diagnosis and there's a great deal of uncertainty of what all that's going to mean.

Maybe it's because of something going on in the workplace and your job may be in jeopardy.

Maybe it's trouble with family, children, spouse, whatever, but you're in such anguish of soul that sleep is elusive.

The psalmist can relate. Today we're reading Psalms 75 -77 and Psalm 79, and I want to zero in on the 77th

Psalm because there the psalmist says in verse 4 of the Lord, he said,

You hold my eyelids open, I am so troubled that I cannot speak. Now, the psalmist, he doesn't tell us what trouble is.

He doesn't tell us what his anguish is, and that's a good thing, isn't it? Because if he told us, then we would know, and then we would think, well, my thing isn't his thing, so maybe

I shouldn't be feeling the way I'm feeling. But the Lord, in his divine inspiration of the

Scripture, he did not give us the insight into what exactly the psalmist's problem is.

He just shares with us what the psalmist went through, and his anguish is so great that he feels like this in verses 7 -9,

Will the Lord cast off forever? Will he be favorable no more? Feel like sometimes that the

Lord has forgotten you, that, you know, he's paying no attention to your situation, he's cast you off, that he's not favorable to you anymore.

Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious?

Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? When was the last time you felt like that?

I'm pretty confident, if you're a follower of Jesus, that there have been times since you came to Christ as a

Christian, you have experienced this kind of a situation, when sleep was elusive and it felt like the

Lord was distant and he was far removed from you. What do you do in times like that?

What do you do? You don't know what the future holds. The present is very uncomfortable.

So the thing to do is to remember the past, to look back at the past.

This is what he does. He remembers, the psalmist remembers, he remembers the years of blessing.

He says in verse 5, I have considered the days of old, the years of ancient times. I call to remembrance my song in the night.

I meditate within my heart and my spirit makes diligent search.

What is he searching for? Well, he goes on in verse 10, he says, I said this is my anguish, this is the thing

I'm struggling with, this is keeping my eyes open situation, but, he says,

I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the

Lord. I will remember your wonders of old. I will also meditate on all your work and talk of all your deeds.

Your way, O God, is in holiness. Who is so great a God as our

God? So what we need to really work on as followers of Jesus is when these times of anguish come and we're tempted to despair and lose sleep and to feel like God's cast us off, we need to work on our thinking and remembering what has

God done for you in the past? Did he not in his mercy and grace bring you to your knees in repentance where you called upon Jesus to save you from your sin?

Didn't he do that for you? If he did, then he has redeemed you, and he has regenerated you, and he has justified you in his sight, and there is therefore now no condemnation to you who are in Christ Jesus.

And he has adopted you as his child. He has made you righteous in the righteousness of Christ.

These are things he has done in the past, and what he has promised to be doing in the present is working all things that come in our lives for an ultimate good that we may not see anytime soon, but that's what his work is doing.

So we remember. We remember the years of his blessing and his prosperity.

We remember his mighty deeds. We remember his holiness. We remember his redeeming work, as the psalmist says in verses 15 and following.

You have with your arm redeemed your people. And so on those sleepless nights, bring your mind back to your

Savior's redeeming work and to his gracious work in the past.

And may the Lord graciously give you sleep, give you rest, as you rest in the confidence that as he has worked in the past, so shall he work in the future.

Our Father and our God, we thank you for this guidance from your word that helps us to know how better to handle times of anguish and trouble.

And I pray that you would help us to do so. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right.